Death of nurse at hands of patient renewing focus on workplace violence

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - The death of a nurse at Baton Rouge General is renewing the focus on workplace violence that nurses experience nearly every day.

Lynne Truxillo was just trying to finish her shift at BRG when Jessie Guillory, a patient, reportedly became violent and started attacking one of her colleagues. According to a warrant, Truxillo stepped in to help, but she became a victim and later died from her injuries.

“We don’t want this to be the norm,” she said. “We don’t want people working in healthcare to think that they don’t have recourse and they shouldn’t be speaking about these incidents because it impacts their work, it impacts burnout and we want people to feel safe at work.”

She says if these attacks are reported more often, hospitals can implement better protections like deescalation techniques and self defense training.

LSNA President Patrick Reed says he wants all of the above implemented in every hospital across the state.

“If you are in a situation where you have a patient that is compromised, you’re not trapped by that patient,” Reed said. “There’s a way to run, that there’s observation, and there’s other people to assist.”

According to a representative with BRG, the hospital is working to honor Truxillo with policies that will protect nurses in the future. In a statement, a representative said:

“The devastating loss of Lynne Truxillo highlights one of the most difficult issues in healthcare. The sad reality of patient care is that aggressive behavior is not uncommon. In 2017, more than half of all workplace violence incidents reported to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics took place in a healthcare setting.

Over the years, this deeply concerning trend prompted us to develop robust employee safety procedures focused on the growing risks in patient care. Today, we continue to enhance our employee safety and training with ongoing feedback from our front-line team members. While there may be no way to completely eliminate all risk from healthcare, Baton Rouge General is committed to honoring Lynne’s memory by doing everything we can to keep our team safe.”

WAFB also reached out to Our Lady of the Lake about any potential changes following the death of Truxillo. They had this to say:

“The thoughts and prayers of our entire healthcare community are with the colleagues, friends and family of Lynne Truxillo. Nurses are often the heroic faces of our care delivery and providing a safe environment for all team members including our nurses is top priority. Our security team, leadership and nursing staff work closely together to prevent and quickly respond to potential situations. Earlier this year we launched an inter-disciplinary workplace violence committee to address specifically this alarming and national trend of patient to caregiver violence. We also work collaboratively with other healthcare organizations to share solutions and remain up-to-date on the latest industry standards and best practices.”

Ochsner Baton Rouge says it conducts “daily safety huddles with collaboration and feedback between all departments, including nursing and security.” “Our work continues to evolve in order to stay top-of-mind about safety” said Ochsner BR Chief Nursing Officer Dianna Teal.